Second Day and a Two Hour Nap

Another nice morning in Oxford England at Wycliffe Hall. I guess I have to start today’s post talking about before the sun rose. A group of students went to the pubs last night. I didn’t go so I could do homework assigned half a world away, what a good student and horrible tourist I am. I’m in England for crying out loud, with no telling if I’ll ever come back to visit; and I’m inside doing homework when I should be exploring! Anywho, you’ve heard my regrets about not going, theses students got back to Wycliffe around two in the morning. Must have been a very good night on account of how much giggling there was. This time it woke me up for a second then I rolled back over, next time I plan to be a part of the giggling gaggle of girls.

That was six hours before the roommates alarm went off at 8 am. I almost didn’t get up for breakfast. In fact I didn’t open my eyes until I heard my roommate moving about. Checked the weather when I finally got up and at 8:19, it was 49 degrees Fahrenheit with a high of 62, and a chance of rain later tonight.

Breakfast was a glass of orange juice and a crescent roll. I steered clear of the “yogurt” but a girl from Moorhead sat down next to me with a big helping of it. She took one bite and made probably the same face I did yesterday. A kind of “this is kinda gross but I don’t want to show it and be rude” face. Yogurt girl, my roommate and I talked a bit about the yogurt and how we hated throwing it away even though we didn’t like it.

After breakfast I went back up to our room and started doing homework from the states again. One of the classes I’m taking is “British and World Drama” with Jessica Durgan. Right now we are starting the French Drama chapter and will be reading Moliere‘s Tartuffe. I was assigned to read pages 45-48 and then 509-514 in The Norton Anthology of Drama Shorter edition. I got through the first part and half way through the second before I gave up. The words were sliding past my eyes and not reaching my brain, so I put it away.

Things were a little loopy, so before I put my book away and my roommate went to her first class of the day I did something kiddish. I had been laying on my stomach on my bed with a thin pink and white poka pot blanket over me. I took a corner of the blanket in each hand and made sounds like an airplane. It made her laugh. When she had gone to her class I tried to work on my Project Proposal for the class that I am keeping this blog for. This proposal is due friday… well, I guess tomorrow at 6 pm. Feeling stumped about how to do it, I went looking to see how my other classmates were going about it. Needless to say there wasn’t much for classmate guidance. Despite this, I did get a good chunk of it done. I’ll try my hand again at it tomorrow.

By this time it was time for Dr. Chapman’s daily history class. Today we were talking about Napoleon Bonaparte.

After class it was lunch time. Today it was fish, peas, french fries and a brownie of sorts for dessert. Now normally I’m not a fish eater, coconut shrimp is about all I can handle. Thinking that I wasn’t going to like the meal, I was surprised to find that this fish was good. It was breaded and somehow without bones.

Mom, I hate to report that I did not eat the peas. This wasn’t a choice of mine though. Here we aren’t allowed to serve ourselves, so the server guy was taking care of an empty dish when it came time to put on the peas. I didn’t want to hold up the line, so I took my pea-less plate and went to sit down. As I ate, there was talk of going to St. Mary’s Cathedral and taking pictures from the top. I said I would go after my final class of the day.

That last class took place right after lunch. It was “Women Novelists of the Nineteenth Century”, taught by Dr. Emma Plaskitt. So I was wrong yesterday about having Nigel as my teacher today. In an hour, Dr. Plaskitt gave the four Moorhead girls and I over 150 years of English writers that influenced our first author of study, Jane Austen. Lots of names and date, but most of it went over my head. Let me just say that compared to the Moorhead girls, I knew next to nothing about nineteenth century women writers, other than what we had been assigned to study. Hopefully their knowledge will jump to me eventually. My notes aren’t as organized as other classes but never the less I will add them so you can see what was covered.

All my intentions of going with the group to St. Mary’s evaporated once my class was over. I was so tired that I just went up stairs and took a nap. I set my alarm for an hour thinking that would be enough, nope. That hour passed and I was still half asleep when the alarm went off. I set it again for another hour and rolled back over. When I woke up it was starting to get windy and dark, a sign that it was going to rain later that night. I figured that I had missed any opportunity to go out on the town so I started taking more pictures of Wycliffe Hall.

I took two shots from my window.

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There is a stain glass window at the back of the Chapel midsection of Wycliffe that I also got some shots of. This window can be divided into three parts. The top third has the Heavenly Host playing different musical instruments. The middle had five men. Jesus was in the middle with Mathew and Mark to his left and Luke and John to his right. Below them in the bottom third there are another five panels. The first one is an Angel talking to Mary, the second Christ being born in the manger, third depicted Jesus hanging on the Cross, the fourth had three women at the tomb of Jesus with an Angel inside and finally the last one had Jesus sitting at a table with one cup before him and two men on the other side of the table facing him. Below, in each of the pictures were words; they read (From what I could make out)

This window is dedicated to the Glory of God and to commemorate the—– of the Jubilee of the Hall. Aumo Domm 1877-1927

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Where all the Euro Spring classes take place

I also took a picture where the Euro Spring classes take place.

By then it was time for dinner. Tonight they served a chicken and cream of mushroom bake, some layered greens that I couldn’t identify and corn. During this I heard about the trip the others took to St. Mary’s and the events from the party goers. American students get majorly snockered on their second full night in Oxford and the locals sit back, sip their drink and watch the Americans make fools of themselves. That’s all I’m going to say on that.

While the day group was out touring they learned of a music festival that was taking place tonight. A decent size group of us went. It was held in the East Oxford Community Center. As it turned out, the festival was a weekly open mike type group that meets Thursday nights. The group was called The Catweazle Club and they had, musicians, singers, poets and even a painter who showed off their talents to a very full room. For the first half I stood in the back, after a break however I was able to find a place on the floor closest to their makeshift stage.

Poster for the Catweazle Club

There was a young man who had a poem with some audience participation about global warming. He did the jist of the poem with the audience coming in at the chorus saying, ‘No, say it ain’t so. don’t give me the facts, cuz I don’t want to know.’ Another guy had a fun poem made of only three letter words. There was also a guy who played the guitar and sang about his addiction with the reusable canvas bag.

I’m glad that I got out tonight with the group. Good night all. Got to be up early tomorrow.. well later today I guess, for my 8:45 “Quests for the East and the Past” class with Dr. Nigel Frith.